


Ben Forgets He Can Die and Then He Remembers

by Dogsledwolf



Series: How Does One Live? [4]
Category: The Umbrella Academy (TV)
Genre: Ben Hargreeves is Alive, Gen, Good Brother Ben Hargreeves, Good Brother Klaus Hargreeves, Good Brother Number Five | The Boy, Life-Threatening Situations, Robbery
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-22
Updated: 2019-03-22
Packaged: 2019-11-27 23:37:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,529
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18200531
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dogsledwolf/pseuds/Dogsledwolf
Summary: He was clearing the second floor when he heard the gunshots.Somebody had found the robbers.___OrThe siblings investigate a robbery and they all make bad decisions.





	Ben Forgets He Can Die and Then He Remembers

**Author's Note:**

> Hi!
> 
> This is part of a series but can be read as a standalone.
> 
> Hope you like it!

For some reason they were back doing the whole super hero thing again.

 

Ben's pretty sure it had been Luther's idea.

 

Or maybe Diego's. He had been the one to catch wind of a robbery at a natural history museum while they were having one of their "family bonding" nights. The next thing Ben knew they were all running out the door.

 

It would've been fine but Luther had started delegating out tasks. _"Ben you scout the area, Diego you're on lookout."_ And Diego hadn't quite agreed. _"Lookout? I'm the most experienced with this, if anyone should be look out it'd be you_ moon boy. _"_

 

With Diego and Luther arguing, everyone had decided to do their own thing and had scattered.

 

Ben had no clue where anyone was. Five had teleported somewhere into the museum. Klaus had mentioned something about Rami Malek and dinosaurs that play fetch before running in after the main entrance. Vanya and Allison had left, neither of them willing to use their powers on something that wasn't the end of the world. Diego and Luther stayed outside, fighting.

 

They'd find their way in eventually.

 

In the meantime, Ben might as well scout around like Luther had told him to. He'd do it more to find his siblings than to find the robbers, but either way he was doing something productive.

 

Ben entered the museum through a window on the ground, he'd be a little more tactful than just running straight through the front doors, _Klaus_.

 

The window opened into the basement, a long hallway with a fancy staircase at the end, the type that had two mirrored flights on both sides. An imperial staircase, which seemed way too fancy for a natural history museum.

 

Along the sides of the hallway were display cases. As Ben got closer he could see that they were filled with models and skeletons of a bunch of types of animals. One of them was host to a taxidermy gorilla head that seemed to be larger than life. It looked like it was staring at him.

 

He half expected it to start lecturing him about the moon or the importance of listening to his father.

 

If this was how the rest of the museum was, why would anyone bother stealing from it?

 

Ben shuddered and moved on.

 

He covered the whole first floor in a relatively short time. It was completely empty. No siblings, no burglars.

 

Ben did, however, find a giant whale skeleton hanging from the ceiling.

 

(He was definitely not tempted to climb it.

 

Not at all.)

 

He was clearing the second floor when he heard the gunshots.

 

Somebody had found the robbers.

 

Ben made his way to the source quietly but efficiently. With any luck it'd be Luther or Diego that had attracted the attention of the robbers. Worst case it'd be Klaus. Not that Klaus was defenseless, but he couldn't do much about a gun in his face.

 

And Ben was always worried about him.

 

But to be fair, it was completely justified.

 

Klaus _had_ just run straight into the main entrance of a building currently inhabited by armed robbers.

 

The other problem about having everyone scattered around was that it rendered his powers useless. He couldn't exactly unleash the Eldritch tentacles if his siblings were right there.

 

The gunshots had died down by the time Ben could see the intruders. He ducked down behind a dodo bird exhibit about twenty feet away.

 

It was way worse than the worst possible case.

 

Luther was down on the floor, Five right next to him, Klaus had a gun to his temple, and Diego was being dragged towards the group, his knives being held by one of the robbers. Klaus was the only one conscious.

 

They were surrounded by half a dozen men in dark clothing, all armed. Shattered glass sprinkled around them, either the result of the gunshots or the result of one of his siblings.

 

At least it didn't look like any of them were shot. Five had blood on his head, but it didn't look bad. Luther and Diego were only bruised.

 

How on Earth had some stupid robbers managed to take out all of them? Ben had a feeling they had been picked off one by one, brought in separately, because _apparently_ it was impossible for his family to work together.

 

If he could just get to Klaus.

 

Ben crept forward carefully against the exhibits. He had the advantage of not being seen, if he could get to Klaus he could figure out a plan.

 

He was fifteen feet. Ten. Five.

 

"Hey! There's another one!" A voice yelled, then a rough hand was grabbing him by the hair and yanking him upward. The cold metallic of a gun pressed itself to the side of his head.

 

Ben was dragged to the other group, Klaus's eyes widening as he saw him. He started to struggle, Ben shook his head, urging him to stop.

 

He didn't.

 

"Oh just shoot him," one of the men said. "If he doesn't stop It's his fault."

 

Klaus stopped moving.

 

But it was too late, the robber that had his gun pointing at Klaus pushed him to the ground. He lifted the gun to Klaus's head.

 

"Wait!" Ben yelled. "Don't kill him!"

 

The first man turned to him, waving a hand at the other to stop.

 

"Well now I'm just disappointed," the man said, pointing his gun at Ben. It felt a little overkill, with two guns aimed at him. "I've got to kill someone. Should it be you?"

 

"No!" Klaus yelled. "Surely there's a way we can work this out without killing anyone? You can go do your-" he gestured with his hand, head still pressed to the ground. "-stealing thing and we'll go on our way without telling anyone about the _big bad men who dunnit_."

 

The man shook his head, the gun in his hand jerking violently. "Nah. That wouldn't be any fun. But you know what is fun? Choosing which one of you to _kill_."

 

"Me," Ben said, sounding a whole lot more confident than he felt. Klaus started to talk but he interrupted him. "If it's got to be one of us, it should be the _one who's gone through this before._ I know what it's like to die, I handled it for _years_." His voice broke on the last word.

 

"So you shouldn't have to go through it again!" Klaus reasoned anxiously. "You never should've had to experience it in the first place."

 

"But I did," Ben whispered, eyes burning with tears. "I'm going to be fine. We need you to stay alive. If you were to die we'd lose our connection to the ghosts, if I die I'm not really gone-"

 

"Well isn't this a touching conversation," the man said impatiently. "But it's getting a tad boring. I choose-" he pointed the gun at Ben, " _you_."

 

"Or, if you want to stop being self-sacrificing idiots, we can get out of here."

 

The burglars whipped around, guns trained into the darkness.

 

They couldn't find the source but Ben knew who it was.

 

Five. He must've gained consciousness at some point.

 

Five jumped around, taking out the guys one at a time, starting with the man who'd been talking. He hit the ground with a sickening crunch. Ben had a feeling he wouldn't be getting back up.

 

He took the distraction and knocked down the robber behind him with a jab to the throat. Five made short work of the rest of them, the confusion keeping the robbers from shooting.

 

A few minutes later they were safe and Five was checking on Luther and Diego. They were beginning to wake up, about five minutes too late.

 

Ben sank to the floor beside the body, rubbing at his eyes furiously to stop the tears.

 

The first thing that Klaus did once the burglars were neutralized was run to Ben, throwing his arms around him.

 

"If you were dead I wouldn't be able to do this, okay?" Klaus said, squeezing him tighter. "Just because you've died before doesn't mean you get to be reckless and stupid. You haven't even gotten a chance to get used to being _alive_ again, that shouldn't be taken away."

 

Ben nodded into Klaus's shoulder.

 

They sat like that for a while.

 

"Next time we do something like this again," Ben said after he had stopped crying. "We work together."

 

"Next time," Five said, standing up and walking over to them. "You aren't allowed to almost die. Klaus is right, we just got you back."

 

Five brushed past Ben, his shoulder touching Ben's for less than a second.

 

He acted like it wasn't intentional.

 

Ben knew better.

 

"And Luther isn't allowed to be in charge," Five added as an afterthought, shifting the attention away from Ben.

 

"Exactly," Diego agreed. "I will be."

 

"That's not what I meant."

 

"Nobody will be in charge," Ben said, giving a pointed look to each of his siblings. "We'll work together and _actually_ agree on things. Like a civilised family."

 

Klaus let out a snort at that.

 

Ben knew it would never be perfect.

 

But they could at least try.


End file.
